A2 Evaluation

Completed Products

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

For the most part, my trailer follows the codes and conventions of other psychological thriller trailers.

There is a clear main character/protagonist. There is obviously dramatic conflict. There are a variety of appropriate shot types,

chosen to convey meaning to the viewer. I based the structure of my trailer loosely on

those I analysed (slow start with building tension).

There are dark themes associated with the thriller genre (death and revenge).

The soundtrack is appropriate to the genre. I included captions.

However, I did break some codes and conventions.

I chose to put no dialogue into the trailer, instead opting for a character voiceover. Despite this being inspired by the Jacob’s Ladder teaser trailer (in which there is a voiceover and very little dialogue) it is rarely seen in trailers, so is unconventional.

I also included no idents on the post title screen shot. This was a conscious stylistic decision – I didn’t like the way it looked when I tried, so I decided to omit them – as there is an ident at the beginning of the trailer, there is still a company present in the trailer.

I tried to stick closely to conventions with my magazine cover.

It features a conventional layout, with a title, headline, puff, barcode, price, issue number and date and several coverlines present.

There is a single large picture on the cover, which is conventional.

I used a palette of black, yellow, light blue, red, white and grey – although a rather large palette, it is not out of the ordinary for movie magazines and is, in fact, quite conventional.

I broke convention slightly with my film poster. The thriller posters I looked at were either

monochrome, showed a person in a clear state of distress or were minimalistic in approach.

I chose a different route and created a teaser poster featuring a close up of a character with an ambiguous expression. There is a stormy beach in the background. Although this poster is unlike any of the ones I looked at, due to it’s colour scheme and picture layout, I deliberately chose to make my poster ambiguous in order to add to the sense of mystery – it could spark discussion about what sort of film it would be, much like the film Cloverfield did upon the release of it’

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?

All three of my products share certain traits and attributes.

The beach is a running theme, appearing heavily in the trailer and also in the background of the poster.

The main character appears on/in all three of my products; he is the only character on the poster and magazine and he has the most individual screen time in the trailer.

All products feature some sort of dark imagery; the dark background on the magazine, the stormy beach in the background of the poster and the violent imagery of my trailer. For these reasons, I believe my trailer and ancillary tasks work well together and that the combination of my main product [trailer] and ancillary tasks [poster and magazine cover] is effective.

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I received a couple of forms of audience feedback; feedback from questionnaires and feedback from my peers and teachers.

This feedback often spurred me on to make necessary changes to my work and also showed me that it is important to create work that appeals to a wide audience, not just myself.

The type of feedback also differed; I found that those who answered the anonymous questionnaire’s were more brutally honest than my peers.

Feedback towards my final product was generally positive – earlier feedback that led me to change my product improved my product overall.

4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

I used various media technologies to carry out and document my research.

These include: Google Search, Microsoft PowerPoint and

YouTube, Mictosoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Vimeo.

Research

Microsoft PowerPoint has been used throughout this project to document my work in an attractive, concise manner.

PowerPoint

Microsoft Excel was used in conjunction with Microsoft Word to construct graphs showing the results of my questionnaires.

Excel

I used Microsoft Word to document my questionnaires and their results.

This is the easiest and most advanced word processing programme I have on my computer, so it made sense to use it above anything else.

Word

Vimeo allowed me to watch the work of previous media students so that I could get an idea of the quality of work I was to produce.

It also allowed me to watch the work of more professional, independent people, which enabled me to get some idea of what made a good trailer.

Vimeo

I used YouTube, a video sharing website, to view existing, professional movie trailers.

Viewing trailers was necessary for my analysis.

YouTube also allowed me to print screen shots in order to talk about them more clearly in PowerPoints.

YouTube

Google allowed me to quickly locate relevant information, which was ideal.

As such, my research was made far easier, and I could easily reach images that I could analyse (e.g. Magazine front covers, move posters) in order to get a better understanding of codes and conventions.

Google Search

Media technology was vital for the construction of my products.

The programs I used for construction were: Photoshop, iMovie, GarageBand and

InDesign.

Construction

Photoshop was used in the construction of my poster, magazine cover and trailer.

Due to the advanced photo editing properties of Photoshop, I was able to airbrush the photos I used, as well as adjust the levels, brightness and contrast and add textures.

Photoshop also allowed me to add text and edit it with strokes, glows and shadows.

Photoshop

I used InDesign with my poster and magazine.

InDesign was used to make the completed products look more ‘professional’. Using InDesign, I added bleed marks and other printing paraphenalia to my document.

InDesign

iMovie was used to construct my entire trailer.

I chose iMovie for it’s sophisticated but easy to use software.

iMovie allowed me to edit my clips appropriately.

I used iMovie to add effects, edit clips together and to add music and voiceovers.

iMovie